Nazism and the Rise of Hitler part2 Flashcards
who is hitler?how did he form the nazi party
Born in 1889 in Austria, Hitler spent his
youth in poverty. When the First World War broke out, he enrolled
for the army, acted as a messenger in the front, became a corporal, and
earned medals for bravery. The German defeat horrified him and the
Versailles Treaty made him furious. In 1919, he joined a small group
called the German Workers’ Party. He subsequently took over the
organisation and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’
Party. This party came to be known as the Nazi Party.
what was the first thing hitler did to rise to power?did it work? when did he become popular?
In 1923, Hitler planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin
and capture power. He failed, was arrested, tried for treason, and
later released. The Nazis could not effectively mobilise popular
support till the early 1930s. It was during the Great Depression that
Nazism became a mass movement. As we have seen, after 1929, banks
collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the
middle classes were threatened with destitution. In such a situation
Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future. In 1928, the Nazi
Party got no more than 2. 6 per cent votes in the Reichstag – the
German parliament. By 1932, it had become the largest party with
37 per cent votes.
desrcibe hitler’s character
Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved
people. He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of
the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.
He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure
future for the youth. He promised to weed out all foreign influences
and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.
what was hitlers style of politics
Hitler devised a new style of politics. He understood the significance
of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilisation. Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and instil
a sense of unity among the people. The Red banners with the
Swastika, the Nazi salute, and the ritualised rounds of applause after
the speeches were all part of this spectacle of power.
explain destruction of democracy
On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg offered the
Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet of ministers, to
Hitler. By now the Nazis had managed to rally the conservatives to
their cause. Having acquired power, Hitler set out to dismantle the
structures of democratic rule. A mysterious fire that broke out in
the German Parliament building in February facilitated his move.
The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 indefinitely suspended civic
rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been
guaranteed by the Weimar constitution. Then he turned on his archenemies, the Communists, most of whom were hurriedly packed off
to the newly established concentration camps. The repression of
the Communists was severe. Out of the surviving 6,808 arrest files
of Duesseldorf, a small city of half a million population, 1,440 were
those of Communists alone. They were, however, only one among
the 52 types of victims persecuted by the Nazis across the country
explain enabling act
On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act
established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to
sideline Parliament and rule by decree. All political parties and trade
unions were banned except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates. The
state established complete control over the economy, media, army
and judiciary.
special surveillance and security
Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and
order society in ways that the Nazis wanted. Apart from the already
existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the Storm
Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the
protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD). It
was the extra-constitutional powers of these newly organised forces
that gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal
state. People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers,
rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will or
arrested without any legal procedures. The police forces acquired
powers to rule with impunity.
what did hjalmar schacht do what were his intiatives
Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the
economist Hjalmar Schacht who aimed at full production and full
employment through a state-funded work-creation programme. This
project produced the famous German superhighways and the
people’s car, the Volkswagen.
talk about hitlers sucess in foreign policy
In foreign policy also Hitler acquired quick successes. He pulled
out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in
1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan,
One people, One empire, and One leader. He then went on to wrest Germanspeaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia, and gobbled up the
entire country. In all of this he had the unspoken support of
England, which had considered the Versailles verdict too harsh.
These quick successes at home and abroad seemed to reverse the
destiny of the country.
what was hitlers ideology of getting out of economic crisis exlain the trpartite pact
Schacht had advised Hitler against investing
hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing.
Cautious people, however, had no place in Nazi Germany. Schacht
had to leave. Hitler chose war as the way out of the approaching economic crisis. Resources were to be accumulated through
expansion of territory. In September 1939, Germany invaded
Poland. This started a war with France and England. In September
1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and
Japan, strengthening Hitler’s claim to international power. Puppet
regimes, supportive of Nazi Germany, were installed in a large
part of Europe. By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of
his power.
discuss hitlers historical blunder
Hitler now moved to achieve his long-term aim of conquering
Eastern Europe. He wanted to ensure food supplies and living space
for Germans. He attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. In this
historic blunder Hitler exposed the German western front to British
aerial bombing and the eastern front to the powerful Soviet armies.
The Soviet Red Army inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat
on Germany at Stalingrad. After this the Soviet Red Army
hounded out the retreating German soldiers until they reached the
heart of Berlin, establishing Soviet hegemony over the entire Eastern
Europe for half a century thereafter
what was usa’s nvolvement in ww2? did it last long?
Meanwhile, the USA had resisted involvement in the war. It was
unwilling to once again face all the economic problems that the
First World War had caused. But it could not stay out of the war
for long. Japan was expanding its power in the east. It had occupied
French Indo-China and was planning attacks on US naval bases in
the Pacific. When Japan extended its support to Hitler and bombed
the US base at Pearl Harbor, the US entered the Second World
War. The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US
dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.
